Some Things Only Make Sense Backward

The difference between a Life and a Story: one happens by default, the other you choose on purpose.

Photo by Dynamic Wang on Unsplash.

There are two ways to view the world and life at large:

Either everything you do matters…or nothing does.

There’s no neat little middle ground here. No soft landing of “some things matter and some things don’t” when you stretch that belief out across the wide canvas of a life. It either carries weight — your story, your choices, your relationships — or it’s all a roll of the dice with no meaning beyond the immediate.

One lens tells us that every action, every moment, and every expression of humanity counts. That the way we live matters not just to us, but to the shared human story. The other lens suggests it’s all just noise. That nothing we say, do, build, or break truly makes a dent in the grand machinery of the universe.

That second idea — if we follow it to its conclusion — eventually asks: So what?

So what if I’m rude to the barista? So what if I break a promise? So what if I don’t show up for the people I love? If nothing ultimately matters, then no act really carries weight. And if no act carries weight, what are we doing here?